Best cucumber pickle recipes. Special Awards.

Jo’s Award Winning Cucumber Pickle Recipe is at the bottom of this article.

My friend Jo is great. She shares her recipes. Even her special ones.Three years ago she told me she had a great recipe for cucumber chutney, if we ever have a glut. I’d just given her a cucumber, one of our bumper “count on one hand” cucumber harvest, so I didn’t trouble her for the recipe at the time.

This year, everything changed. I noticed that we had masses of flowers on our greenhouse cucumbers. Tiny dolls house sized cucumbers followed and they flourished. We were so pleased. By August we finally had a glut. I was jubilant as I dialled Jo’s number.We have made four large batches of different cucumber pickle/chutney recipes this summer.

Some were described as chutney and some as pickles. We thought that all were more of a pickle than traditional chutney. In each one, the vegetables float in the vinegar.Pickles need only a month to mature, compared to the two month (plus) wait for traditional chutney. The month was up today, and along with a recipe request last night, we decided to spend spent a happy half hour tasting them all.

The two that received The Cottage Smallholder Award were Jo’s Cucumber Chutney (England) and Granny’s Very Sweet Cucumber Pickle (United States). I found the latter on the Internet.

Jo’s cucumber pickle has a great depth of flavour and texture. Very good with cheese but subtle and piquant enough to serve with a really rich chicken liver pate, or chopped fine and added to a salad or sauce. It’s typically European in its style and taste. We loved it and Danny pleaded with me not to give any more away.

Granny’s pickle is a totally different animal; sweet and sour and crunchy. Although I’ve only been to the States a couple of times, I know that this pickle is quintessentially America at it’s best. This would be a great dolloped on Aberdeen Angus burgers or served on the side with thick juicy slices of smoked ham. Perfect in rare beef sandwiches, along with the mayo and mustard. No wonder Granny’s grand son-in-law uses 200 cucumbers a year making this recipe. We have pondered over this fact. Does he bulk buy or does he grow them all?

How do I sterilise jars and lids?
We collect jars all year round for our jelly, chutney and jam making sessions. I try to soak off labels and store the clean jars and metal plastic coated screw-top lids in an accessible place. The sterilising method that we used is simple. Just before making jam, jelly,’cheese’, chutney or pickles.I quickly wash and rinse the jars and place them upside down in a cold oven. I set the temperature to 160c/140c for fan assisted. When the oven has reached the right temperature I turn off the heat. The jars will stay warm for quite a while. I only use plastic lined lids for preserves as the all-metal lids can go rusty and if there is vinegar in the jar, this can react badly with metal. I boil lids for five minutes in water to sterilise them. If I use Le Parfait jars, I do the same with the rubber rings.

I’ve made Jo’s pickle numerous times now since discovering this last year, & it’s wonderful. On my first attempt I realised I had run out of mustard seeds, so used kalonji (black onion or nigella) seeds, which worked so well that I have kept to that since, with occasionally an added sprinkle of mustard seeds. Yellow apple cucumbers make a great & very pretty variation, & white/ brown sugar or red/ white onions all work well – everyone who tastes it LOVES it & asks for the recipe.

Have made two batches of this delicious pickle,the first I realised at the last moment I didn’t have brown sugar so used white.The second I made correctly with the brown sugar and to be honest the first batch looked so much prettier and I can’t tell the difference taste wise. So next year it’s white sugar all the way…also thought I’d use red onions to help make it really pretty.Christmas treats here they come….

I’ve had the luck getting a jar of these pickled cucumbers from a friend. I really like it! Now I want to make my own batch.
Can you tell me, how much are 4 large cucumbers roughly? I’d like to use smaller ones, not the ususal watery large salad-cucumbers.
Greetings from Germany!

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